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INTEGRATED PLANNING FOR ONSITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  701P0104,  . (doi: 10.13031/2013.15829)
Authors:   Rod Frederick, Robert Goo, James Kreissl, and Barry Tonning
Keywords:   Planning, onsite wastewater, cumulative impacts, integrated planning, decentralized planning, comprehensive planning, cluster systems, clusters, comprehensive wastewater management, regional planning, USEPA

Unplanned, compartmentalized approaches for onsite wastewater treatment fail to consider cumulative water resource and pollutant impacts. Planning is the key to cost effective wastewater treatment, regardless of whether the facilities are centralized or decentralized. Centralized facility planning has been required for treatment expansion projects since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. We have now arrived at the time to extend the tenets of integrated water resource planning to the millions of homes and businesses served by decentralized facilities. What is needed is an approach that fully integrates the entire range of water use, water resource, and wastewater treatment activities centralized and decentralized to guide infrastructure planning efforts, increase treatment performance, improve water quality, and promote efficiency. Individual site evaluations, treatment technology selection, and other micro-scale activities will still be needed, but they will be enhanced significantly by integration with larger scale planning and monitoring efforts and comprehensive analyses of water budgets and cumulative impacts.

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